Documenting our first night heating with wood

[7acres]

Long story short, we left the windows open all day as it was nice outside. House was 67F when I fired up the wood stove at 6:10pm. This morning at 7am the outside temp was 44F and the inside temp was a very comfortable 72F. I went out to the dining room to see if the fire still had life to it. Sure did. Woo Hoo!

What we had this AM. I feel like this could have kept putting out heat for another hour max.


What I started with. I'd say this load is %70 seasoned hickory and 30% seasoned cedar. With one pine split in there (bottom right). This photo was after maybe 10 minutes.


Lessons learned:
* Lighting from the top is the way to go. Secondaries kicked in five minutes in. Very little smoke.
* My stove calls for 18" max length on splits. 18.5" and 19" splits actually fit. The ends of the splits were very close to the glass. This resulted in creosote building up on the glass near the split's ends. Too close to the glass for the air wash to do it's job (I will clean with ash this evening).
* 1/4 of a Super Cedar was all it took to get this load going as well as my burn in load last weekend.
* Speaking of Cedar... I used some seasoned cedar branches for kindling and it caught and took off really well. Makes me want to take the M150 out to some cedar slash piles I made from limbing last weekend and save most of the cedar branches for kindling next year. The bark on the cedar caught faster than the super cedar did.

We sat around the dining room table and enjoyed the fire. We were all so happy with our wood stove. Wife was so happy and telling our 2yr old how smart I am for figuring this all out (big hat tip to all the help I received from YOU!).

Our first day burning wood was a huge success. This forum rocks!

 

[Therivermonster]

The fire looks great. It's interesting to see the secondaries lighting so quickly into the fire. Thanks for the pics, 7acres!

 

[7acres]

Thanks riverrmonster,
Yeah, I was surprised the secondaries engaged that fast too. When I started the kindling on the bottom it took a good 30-45 minutes for the secondaries to kick in. So I'll be starting from the top on cold starts from now on.

The fire looks great. It's interesting to see the secondaries lighting so quickly into the fire. Thanks for the pics, 7acres!

 

[toddnic]

Welcome to the woodstove family You will never go back to the way it "used to be."

 

[Therivermonster]

Did you just place the super cedar on top of the stack of splits and light it off, or did you use some kindling?

 

[7acres]

Did you just place the super cedar on top of the stack of splits and light it off, or did you use some kindling?

Small pile of ~3/4" thick cedar and pine branches over the quartered super cedar.

 

[Sconnie Burner]

Looking good! I started using the top down method as well and all I can say is wow. Seen the secondaries start really soon as you did. And no babysitting the fire. Lite it and don't worry about it for a few hours! You'll enjoy the wood heat when its bitter cold and windy that's for sure!

 

[wahoowad]

Great job! I really like that stove! I wish they made something a little smaller. It's getting close to time to swap out this F3CB for something different

 

[CTYank]

Amen on the top-down light-off. Standard occurrence with new wood-burners is to have wood consumption rate drop over time. Meaning, your second year, you might well use 30% less wood than the first. Just the way it goes. Nice stove.

 

[Nick Mystic]

I've noticed the same thing in my Jotul F 600 regarding the secondaries firing off pretty quickly when the stack of wood is fairly near the top of the stove and I use a top down start up system. It seems rather strange the first time or two seeing the secondaries blowing so strong before a sold fire is even established. I think it must have something to do with the temperature of the burn tubes. When the flames are right below them it stands to reason they would get hot very quickly. Much quicker than when a small flame is burning slowly down at the bottom of the stack of wood in the stove. The hot tubes must then start burning the off gassing as the splits heat up.

 

[jotul?]

Very nice! I really like the F55. Hope it's everything you imagined it would be!

 

[begreen]

Your off to a great start. Good stove and good starters!

 

[7acres]

A friend sent me this PDF of an article from a 1993 issue of The Chimney Sweep News. Sounded like good advice to me. And after trying it I'm a fan of the top down fire for cold starts.

 

[BSH1F]

A friend sent me this PDF of an article from a 1993 issue of The Chimney Sweep News. Sounded like good advice to me. And after trying it I'm a fan of the top down fire for cold starts.

I've always wanted a new way to light my stove thanks!

 

[7acres]

I've always wanted a new way to light my stove thanks!

Thought I'd mention, it had a live coal bed and was putting out heat for an additional 12 hours after I would have considered the burn over with. If we needed heat the following night new wood would have ignited from the following night's coal bed. Even though we didn't put a new load of wood in to heat during the day.

 

[cuttingedge]

Very nice,
I had the same stove installed yesterday and completed two break in fires so far. I am looking forward to completing the break in procedure and seeing what this stove is capable of. Hopefully it will heat my entire house
I will try the top down method with its first real burn tomorrow night.

 

[7acres]

Great job! I really like that stove! I wish they made something a little smaller. It's getting close to time to swap out this F3CB for something different

Wahoowad,
They make a smaller stove of the same design. It's named the F45 Greenville.

 

[7acres]

Nick Mystic,
I think your theory makes sense. What was interesting to me is the wood on the bottom had ignited after probably just 30 minutes. The stove had great draft and I think the flames were being pulled down quickly seeking the oxygen. So even though I ignited it from the top it wasted no time getting down to the wood below.

I've noticed the same thing in my Jotul F 600 regarding the secondaries firing off pretty quickly when the stack of wood is fairly near the top of the stove and I use a top down start up system. It seems rather strange the first time or two seeing the secondaries blowing so strong before a sold fire is even established. I think it must have something to do with the temperature of the burn tubes. When the flames are right below them it stands to reason they would get hot very quickly. Much quicker than when a small flame is burning slowly down at the bottom of the stack of wood in the stove. The hot tubes must then start burning the off gassing as the splits heat up.

 

[Grisu]

Nick Mystic,
I think your theory makes sense. What was interesting to me is the wood on the bottom had ignited after probably just 30 minutes. The stove had great draft and I think the flames were being pulled down quickly seeking the oxygen. So even though I ignited it from the top it wasted no time getting down to the wood below.

That's not bad but was for me the reason to switch back to the bottom-up startup procedure. With that it takes me only 15 min at most to get the whole firebox engulfed and another 15 min until I have the air adjusted to its final stage. The sooner I get the stove hot and the less time I spend fiddling around with it the better, IMHO. But I agree that top-downs create less smoke so there is a trade-off.

 

[cuttingedge]

Quick question...
The baffle plate on your stove, is it black or stainless? I am wondering because I was under the impression that it was stainless and mine is black?

 

[7acres]

It is black. But Jotul claims it is stainless and guaranteed for life. Powder coated, parkerized or blued stainless perhaps?

 

[cuttingedge]

It is black. But Jotul claims it is stainless and guaranteed for life. Powder coated, parkerized or blued stainless perhaps?

Thank you for the quick response. Some concerns that I have are as follows: my install company did not use a block off plate, instead they pushed roxul into the chimney. The stove does not have the flue collar heat shield installed. The blower was installed incorrectly and finally the connection to the stove collar was not secured with the supplies screws. I have spoken with my dealer regarding these issues and hopefully they get resolved. Otherwise, I am happy with my purchase.

 

[7acres]

Sorry to hear. Installers cutting corners and incorrectly installing components is frustrating to deal with. Best wishes getting the issues resolved.

Thank you for the quick response. Some concerns that I have are as follows: my install company did not use a block off plate, instead they pushed roxul into the chimney. The stove does not have the flue collar heat shield installed. The blower was installed incorrectly and finally the connection to the stove collar was not secured with the supplies screws. I have spoken with my dealer regarding these issues and hopefully they get resolved. Otherwise, I am happy with my purchase.

 

[BSH1F]

Hey, just following up on that upside down fire, i was deciding if i wanted to even do it tonight or just the way I've been. Well i love trying new things so I took the time and did it and i gotta say, i will never build a fire any other way in my stove again. From start to now (1 hour after shutting my door) I've ran outside every couple of mins and barely any smoke if any! Also i only had to have my door cracked for less than 5 mins and the air inside does the rest! This is the first time my wife couldn't smell any smoke when i lit the fire. Now i have a huge pile of coals burning hot as hell with barely any air going into it. Thanks again!

 

[BSH1F]

Just the fact that you don't have to open the door to a smoldering little fire to add to it after one hour is really nice. It took me 30 mins to reach a coal stage that takes me almost over an hour if i started from the bottom like a camp fire.